Looking ahead to 2013

Friday

Dec 28, 2012 at 9:20 AM

I’m no soothsayer, but I can peer into the future far enough to make a few predictions for the coming year.

Michael GormanEditorial Page Editor

I’m no soothsayer, but I can peer into the future far enough to make a few predictions for the coming year.They say those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. And I can assure you that many of the people who set the tone for government around these parts don’t learn from anything, least of all history.I am confident that at least some of the following will become reality. To be fair, these are mainly just foreseeing the continuation of ongoing events, but I’m sticking with calling them predictions.A new jail — The Lafourche Parish Council, the parish president and the sheriff have kicked this thing around until it’s not even much fun to make this prediction, but here goes: Nothing significant will happen in this regard in the new year.Neither Parish President Charlotte Randolph nor Sheriff Craig Webre has taken ownership of this pressing problem, so it is more likely to linger than to be solved.There is no question of the need for a new jail. The present facility is outdated and undersized. It is also suffering from a number of structural problems.Unfortunately, aside from naming committees, there has been no work done on getting a new jail in place before a judge eventually rules the present one unusable.Political leadership is necessary, but political courage is rare, particularly when it comes to recommending a plan that involves millions or tens of millions of dollars.I am confident that this problem will still be around this time next year.Political shenanigans — You don’t have to look far in Lafourche Parish to find some clown on the Parish Council willing to put his own petty political vendettas before the good of the parish.So I’m not really going out on a limb when I forecast the continued idiocy that has been the rule so far.Leading the way, as usual, will be Parish Councilman Daniel Lorraine who has long made sport of keeping Lafourche a laughingstock. He may have an heir to his arrogance in fellow Councilman Jerry Jones, who has a newfound grudge against Randolph and a willingness to ruin lives in the furtherance of his folly.The voters of Lafourche showed this year that they will go along with just about anything when they approved the firing of former Parish Administrator Crystal Chiasson because she doesn’t live in the parish. No matter that her address hasn’t changed since she was hired for her job and approved by the council — including Jones.I predict more of the same.Educational mediocrity — In a region where school officials are more likely to whine about the grading system than to try for better grades, it should surprise no one that our area will remain mired in mediocrity or worse.When we console one another with the fact that we’re in the middle of the pack in the worst state in the nation for education, we should expect the terrible results we get from our struggling schools.And when we pretend that everything’s OK because we inched upward on a scale where the rest of the nation is looking down at us, we should all foresee the terrible futures we are building for our children.This isn’t a prediction as much as a proven fact, but our children as a group are unprepared for jobs or higher education, and they are unlikely to improve their lot in our substandard schools.This is not an indictment of the system; it is an indictment of the voters who continue to elect people who oversee and perpetuate mediocrity when excellence should be demanded.So my prediction is that when excellence is eventually demanded of the children, they will possess only the mediocrity with which we have endowed them.OK, so the future isn’t that bright. The good news is that I am so often wrong. May our political officials prove me so once again.These are mine, but I encourage you to submit your predictions for 2013. You can email them to me at the address below, and I will include the best ones in a future column. No, that wasn’t a prediction, just a promise.Happy New Year!

Editorial Page Editor Michael Gorman can be reached at 448-7612 or by e-mail at mike.gorman@dailycomet.com.

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